My heart jolts and heat stains my cheeks.
Did Nathan Campbell… just call me a ‘pretty lady’? I didn’t imagine that, did I?
Jay-jay flings a dark look at Nathan. “I’ll keep my promise, mister.”
“You better,” Nathan says.
The little boy runs away, getting absorbed into the crowd of onlookers.
And now it’s just me.
And Nathan.
And about a thousand other locals from Lucky Falls and the nearby-towns but, somehow, no one else registers but him.
I fiddle with the wrench in my hand, trying not to stare.
But it’s difficult.
His faceinvitesadmiration and it’s only gotten worse with time. Nathan’s always had a square jaw and green eyes that could stare into a person’s soul like a dredger machine pulling sand from the ocean.
At eighteen, he was a ten on the attractive meter, but now the meter is on the fritz because it lacks the capacity to measure him.
That buzz cut alone is attractive enough to breakseveralmeters. He’s just showing off his beautiful, symmetrical head shape at his point.
And his jawline?
Ring, ring.
Hello?
Henry Cavill called and he wants his Superman chin back.
“That was nice of you,” Nathan says and I realize his mouth had been moving this entire time, but I was too busy tracing the differences between his youthful-eighteen-year-old face and his current, manly face.
“Huh—what?” I zone back in.
“To help that kid. That was nice of you,” he says. “Let me guess. You’re some kind of shop teacher at a middle school?”
I blink unsteadily. Are the fumes from the go-carts getting to me or is there a very subtle flirtatious vibe going on here?
“No, I’m not a teacher.” I turn away from him, lift the buckle on the tool box and slip the wrench back in.
“Do you want me to keep guessing?” he asks, smiling as I straighten again. “Active duty?”
I frown.
“Army reserve?”
“Do I look like a solider to you?”
His beautiful green eyes slide over my body and I feel heat sizzle everywhere like tiny, isolated fireworks.
“You give me that vibe. Yeah.”
I can’t make heads or tails of this situation, of thismoment.Why is Nathan looking at me like I’m a stranger he’s met in town? Does he not recognize me?
It’s pretty dark, the surroundings lit up only by a few, makeshift lights over the soccer field-turned-go-cart track, but still…
